Consider how you behave under pressure or in an emergency. Are you someone who springs into action, who leads the way or are you someone who waits for someone else to take the lead? Under pressure, we can surprise ourselves, surpass our own expectations. On the other hand, in ordinary everyday routine life, within our so-called comfort zone, we operate routinely, numbly, mindlessly... which would you prefer to be and what are you going to do about it?

Today's video explores the plethora of assessment tools that a wide range of academic research initiatives in psychology suggests assess precious little other than the smoke and mirrors behind which we normally hide in our everyday automated lives. The person we see in the mirror is not a reflection but an illusion and, all too often, the image we portray is no more than a smokescreen designed to paper over the cracks of our own perceived weaknesses. I am, of course, talking about our personality - the mask that we all wear to enable us, in evolutionary time-honoured fashion, make it through the day.

Now, our series of videos is about leadership and leadership - even leading your own life - is about an awful lot more than making it through the day. Leadership requires that the real you emerges from the mist of your personality and starts making an impact in your ordinary everyday life... to the extent that you start living your ordinary life extraordinarily, effortlessly.

We all have this particular option at our disposal. We can all step out of the shadow that was cast upon us during our formative years to become the kind of person that makes every single day of our lives worth living, an adventure, a chain of events that makes a difference to us and those around us.

However - a quick point of clarification: you might get the impression that, when I talk about personality, it's all negative. You'd be right - because, even if your personality is positive, even if you've lots of perceived strengths rather than perceived weaknesses, your personality, learned as it was during your early formative years, is divorcing you from the reality of the here and now. And that will always - always - disable you from doing the right thing here and now.

OK - I've got that off my chest! Assessment tools measure patterned behaviour or behavioural preferences - the automatic output of your personality. They have little to do with who you are and what you're capable of. Worse, they comfort you by telling you that it's alright to be programmed, habitual and automated. What I suggest you do is assess yourself - you're best placed to do it - that you evaluate what you have done and what you need to do to get you to where you want to go. This assumes, of course, that you know where you want to go - but I have yet to meet anyone who is completely happy with their current lot in life, completely at ease with their work/life balance and their impression of their own self worth.

We all have things that we want to achieve. For most, their achievement remains elusive or, simply a pipe dream but for you, the real you, you can lead your life to wherever you want it to go. The first step you need to take is to realize that you need to take different, bolder, braver steps than the ones that you habitually take every day.